


Sister

by XxDaughterOfTheNilexX



Series: Sister Saga [1]
Category: The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 17:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7184228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XxDaughterOfTheNilexX/pseuds/XxDaughterOfTheNilexX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaliyah is Rick's sister, but she's not the average Rick sister's stories you normally read, she is also Medjai, born into one of the tribes and left when she was 7 years old when her mother took her away, how will she fit into the story? Read and find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

_"Baba, no, please don't leave me!" I cried after other warriors brought him back to camp. Mama and the others tried to keep me away, but my father had asked for me. Baba groaned and clutched his side as he reached out for me. I walked closer to him as he took off his bloody gloves and held my hands in his._

_"Aaliyah, my darling daughter. If Allah tells me it's my time to go, then I must." He said, taking his thumb and wiping my tears away. "You be good for your Mama now, you hear?" Baba asked._

_I nodded. "Na'am Ab." I said quietly._

_"Good girl. I love you Aaliyah, don't you ever forget that, and I'll always be watching over you." He said._

_"I love you too Baba." I said, my tears starting up again._

_My father then looked up at the ceiling. "Allahumm-aghfir li, warhamni." Father whispered._

_"Allahu Akbar." He said, before taking his last breath and closing his eyes._

_"BABA!" I screamed, yelling and crying. Mama came over to me and gathering me into her arms and held me._

** -Present Day- **

I woke up with a start and sighed at that memory. I hated reliving my father's death. I was only 7 years old when he died and I was a total daddy's girl. I am 24 years old now and it'd been 17 years since my father's death and it still haunted me.

My mother took me and left our tribe after my father's funeral. I am from the smallest of the 12 tribes of the Medjai, and when I was born, I was betrothed to the Medjai Chieftain's son, but I supposed that was off when my mother took me away.

I changed into a pair of tan pants and sighed, looking down at my tattooed arms of the symbols of the Medjai. One was the traditional Medjai symbol (and I was surprised to learn that my half-brother had it, but I never told him anything about it, as I didn't like to bring my past up), one was of the symbol of my particular tribe (as each tribe had their own symbol) and another was one that marked me as a commander's daughter. I shook my head as I pulled a black long sleeved shirt on.

Later that night, I opened my door after hearing a knock to find my older half-brother, Rick standing there. "Allah almighty. Richard O'Connell, were the heck have you been? I haven't seen you in three years." I said. I pulled my brother into the house and closed the door. I've known pretty much my whole life that he was my brother. My mother never hid the fact that she had an older son from me, and she sometimes took me to Cairo to visit him.

He had cuts and fading bruises on his face and arms and his hair was long and shaggy and he had facial hair as well. "Well, I have been in the Cairo prison for the past few months." He stated.

I raised an eyebrow. "Do I even want to know?" I asked.

"According to them, I had a little bit too much fun." He said, knowing that I would know that I didn't want to know.

"Yeah, I think I can tell. You look really rough. The bathroom is down the hall, please, get cleaned up." I said. "I put a few things in there that you would need. For some reason, I've always thought that something like this may happen." I said as an afterthought, giving my brother a teasing smile.

"Oh very funny Aaliyah." Rick said, rolling his eyes, shutting the bathroom door behind him, and I couldn't help but laugh. My mom was out, so I was left to defend for myself for supper, and I was in the middle of preparing it when my brother had arrived. _Well_ , I thought _, at least he doesn't hate tomatoes, but then again, he probably doesn't care._ I reached into the cabinet and got out two bowls.

I poured the tomato soup into the bowls and sprinkled basil on both and put a little cheese on mine and left it out on the table in case my brother wanted cheese. The sun started going down, so I walked back to the living room and cut the lamps on. My brother then walked out of the bathroom. He was now cleaned, shaven and had cut his hair. He looked so much better now. "Now I recognize you as my brother." I said, teasing him again.

He rolled his eyes at me again, but he had a smile on his face. I was his annoying little sister, but he had no choice _**but**_ to love me. He gave me a hug. "It's good to see you Aaliyah, it really is and thanks for this." He said. I hugged him back.

"It's no problem Rick, you're my older brother, really." I said, but I understood where he was coming from. I was the only family that he had left, he doesn't really count our mother, as she never raised him.

"I have a favor to ask of you." He said, after taking a few bites of the soup, he was watching my face closely, anticipating my reaction.

"Yeah, what?" I asked.

"A woman saved my life at the prison in exchange of me leading her and her brother to Hamunaptra." He said.

My eyes widen, as kids, everyone in all the villages/tribes were taught the story of Imhotep and Hamunaptra, and it wasn't good. Most people didn't know about Imhotep, thinking it was a myth, and a lot of people had lost their lives looking for it, and my tribe and the other 11 were sworn from manhood (for those that choose to become warriors) to make sure that no one _**EVER**_ came near that place. Some of the warriors often lost their lives defending it, like my father did.

I shook my head. "Rick, are you sure?" I asked. He knew that I knew of this place, I had simply told him that my tribe knew of it, but he never pressed me any more on it, because he knew I didn't like talking about my past and he respected that.

"Yes, I want you to come with me, just to make sure nothing happens. I have to take her there, she saved my life." He said.

I nodded. "I will come, but just know this, I won't lead them to anything. It goes against everything I was raised and taught." I said. He nodded.

"Of course, I'm not asking you to. I'm just asking you to come." He said.

"When do we leave?" I asked.

"In the morning." He told me. After supper, he helped me to clean the kitchen and then he went off to his room/guest room. I had always kept his stuff in there, because whenever he was here, he stayed with mom and me. I headed to my bedroom and grabbed out my messenger bag and only packed two changes of clothes, my medical kit (as there is no telling with my brother), some of my daggers, paper and pens, a book and a few other stuff. Then I went to bed, to get some rest before the trip that was upcoming tomorrow.

* * *

** Translations: **

Allahumm-aghfir li, warhamni: O' Allah! Forgive me, have mercy on me.

*I looked it up and chose this one, because I though it was fitting, due because the Medjai had to kill people in order to stop anyone from reaching Hamunaptra and/or discovering Imhotep*

Allahu Akbar: Allah is great

* * *


	2. Chapter Two

The next morning, I got up as the sun was coming out and went to my dresser and pulled out a tight fitting skirt, it didn't look tight, but it allowed me to move more freely in case anything happened. I also pulled on a gray tank top and a black and gray stripped cardigan and a gray scarf, as I knew I would need it. I pulled on my black boots and then finally, I brushed my long black hair and twisted it up into a messy bun on top of my head, and put a navy blue headband in.

I grabbed my bag and walked to my door and then into the living room to wait on my brother. Finally, 15 minutes later, he came out with his bag and gunnysack. "And it takes women a long time to get ready." I said, shaking my head. We walked out the door, I went to the stables and got my horse out and then we walked down to the port, where I could hear a similar voice.

"Personally, I think he's filthy, rude and a complete scoundrel. I don't like him one bit."

"Anyone I know?" My brother asked, with me trailing behind him.

"Oh… Um… Hello." She said.

"And this is Aaliyah Massari, my-" He got cut off, as I got noticed.

"Aaliyah!?" I just then noticed the woman was Evelyn Carnahan, my cousin. Well, I be dammed, it was a small world after all.

"Ali!" Jonathan said.

"Hi Jon." I said.

"You know them?" My brother asked.

"Yes, they're distant cousins of mine on my father's side.

"And how do you know him?" Evy asked.

I gave a small smile. "Remember that brother I mentioned?" I asked, continuing when she nodded. "Well this is him, Rick." I said, patting my brother's shoulder. She then just looked speechless.

It wasn't until a few years ago that my mother and I pieced together that they were distant cousins of mine. We asked around and learned that my grandfather's, aunt was only half Medjai, never living in the tribe, but instead, raised by her father and stepmother. Don't ask how we found out, it took a while, it was covered up pretty good, considering her father wasn't Medjai at all.

Jonathan grabbed my brother's arm and shook his hand. "Smashing day for the start of an adventure, eh, O'Connell?" He asked.

My brother quickly searches around his pockets, "Yeah, sure, smashing." He said, and relaxes as he pulls out his wallet, and then putting it back in. I then tune the boys out as I looked over the water, watching as some smaller boats went past, I turned back to everyone as Evy starts talking.

"Mister O'Connell, can you look me in the eye, and guarantee me this is not some sort of flimflam? Because if it is, I'm warning you –" Evy starts off and I shook my head, sighing, knowing my brother would not like what she was saying, and I was right. He got closer and stared straight at her, and she didn't back away or flinch, I was impressed.

"You're warning me? Lady, my whole damn garrison believed in it so much, that without orders, we marched halfway across Libya and into Egypt to find that city. All we found was sand and blood. I'll take your bags." He said, reaching down to get them and then walked onto the boat.

Jon turned to look at Evy. "Yes, yes, you're right, filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel, nothing to like there at all." He said, and Evy shot him a glare, and he just grins at her.

"It's good to see you two." I said, hugging each of my cousins, but I need to go find my brother." I said, walking up the gangplank and onto the boat, and leading my horse to the stables on board that was supplied.

Later that night, on my way to the barge to join Evy, my messenger bag still over my shoulder, I saw Jonathan playing poker with the Americans, rolling my eyes, I hit him in the head on my way past, and smiled to myself when I heard him complain. "Ow! Aaliyah, what was that for?" he asked, I just ignored him as I walked over to Evy and leaned with my back against the rails.

"How's it been going?" I asked her. She gave me a soft smile.

"Pretty good I suppose, the curator tried to stop me from going on this trip though." She said, turning to look at the water once more. I realized just then the curator had to be part of the Medjai order, from what was instilled in me, only they-we, were like that.

"And Jonathan keeps being infuriating." She said. I nodded.

"Yeah, I can understand that one." I said, thinking of my brother. Not even 20 minutes later, after Evy had gone back to her book, when I saw my brother walk into the barge. He dropped his gunnysack on the table, totally startling Evy. He made a face before quickly turning it into a smile.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya." He said.

"The only thing that scares me, Mister. O'Connell are your manners." She said.

"Still angry that I kissed ya, huh?" He asked her and I raised an eyebrow at my older brother, he looked at me and shrugged.

"If you call that a kiss." She said.

Rick sat down and opened up his gunnysack, and starts pulling out things. I lightly rolled my eyes. My brother has always had a thing for guns, and, me over here, I only had my daggers, and my sword, which I barely used anymore, but I still knew how to use it. "Am I missing something here? Are we going into battle?" Evy asked.

I was lost in thought and I missed part of my brother's words until I heard: "There's something out there, you know, something under that sand." And I had to nod at that, there was, but at least he didn't know what.

"Yes, I'm hoping to find a certain artifact, a book, actually, my brother thinks there's treasure. What do you think is out there?" She asked. I mentally snorted. _"Evil."_ I thought, at least that's what my father told me, I never experienced something there firsthand like my brother did, however.

"Evil. The Tuaregs and the Bedouin believe that Hamunaptra is cursed, they call it, "the doorway to hell." He said. Ahmar is Ossirion, I remembered.

"Passageway to the underworld", actually." Miss. Smarty-Pants said, I rolled my eyes. This was an interesting conversation between them for sure.

"I don't believe in fairy tales and hokum, Mister O'Connell, but I do believe that one of the most famous books in history is buried out there, The Book of The Living. It's what first interested me in Egypt as child. It's why I came here, sort of a life's pursuit." She stated. My brother was still cleaning his guns.

"And the fact that they say it's made out of pure gold, makes no never mind to you, right?" He asked.

Evy looked surprised. "You know your history." She said.

He lets off a little shrug and looks at her. "I know my treasure." He said.

Evy gets up and hesitates, "By the way… Why did you kiss me?" She asked. Rick shrugged both his shoulders, not looking up from his guns.

"I was about to be hung. It seemed like a good idea at the time." He said. I could see my cousin's eye widen and she stormed off, furious, to the camels. He looked up. "What… What'd I say?" He asked. I sighed and put my head in my palm and shook my head.

"Smooth Rick, smooth." I said. "I'm going to go see my horse." I said, walking away and going to see my stallion, Abrar (Pronounced ab-raar). It meant pious, kind and righteous in Arabic.

Suddenly, a bunch of people clothed in black robes, gray sashes, bandoliers, and navy blue scarves and turbans. My eyes widen, I knew exactly who these men were. Medjai. I groaned. "This is what happens when you let your older brother get you into this mess." I muttered under my breath. I heard my brother's guns going off and I sighed. "Wonderful." I muttered.

"Aaliyah!" He called for me. I knew exactly what he was going to say, another Medjai warrior had entered the stable where my horse was, and I heard my starting down the other way. I pushed the warrior behind a stack of hay bales.

_"If you don't stay down, my brother will kill you."_ I told him in Arabic.

_"Why are you helping me, when I'm trying to kill you?"_ He asked.

I sighed and pulled up my sleeves, showing him the tattoos on my arms and his eyes widen and he was in shock.

"Aaliyah, what are you doing?" Rick asked, coming into the stable, I had already quickly was undoing everything that was holding Abrar in.

"Just getting Abrar out." I said, having already smelled the smoke. He nodded.

"Well hurry up." He said, rushing back out. I opened the stall door and got Abrar out and was about to leave, when I heard the warrior speak up from behind me.

"Shokran (Thank you)" He said. I nodded and led my horse to the edge of the boat, somehow managing to get us both in the water. I spotted my brother and led Abrar over to everyone.

"Hey O'Connell! Looks to me like I got all the horses!" A man named Beni, as Rick informed me said.

"Hey Beni! Looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!" Rick yelled back.

Beni scoffed and then looked up at the stars and then kicks the water, cursing in Hungarian. I looked over at the boat that was now slowly sinking and then noticed the warrior getting off on the way other side of the Nile.

** Third Point of View: **

The warrior that Aaliyah Massari let go, managed to get to the men on horseback waiting for word, he particularly looked at Ardeth Bay, and Saleem Massari, who had taken back over the position of commander after his son's death, since no one else would.

_"Tarek, what happened?"_ Ardeth asked.

_"O'Connell and the others all escaped sir, the rest of the warriors, dead. I would have lost my life too, if not for."_ He cut off, trying to piece the words together, with a glance at Saleem, he turned back to look at his chieftain. _"I think I've found Aaliyah Massari sir."_ He said.

This piqued the interest of Ardeth and Saleem and the surrounding commanders. Aaliyah was the granddaughter of Saleem and if she had not have been taken away from the tribe, she would still be betrothed to Ardeth.

" _Are you sure Tarek?"_ Ardeth asked.

The older warrior before them nodded. _"I'm absolutely positive that the girl is Kahlil's ((Pronounced: kah-LEEL)) daughter, I saw her tattoos. She saved my life, she could've let her brother kill me, but she didn't."_ He said.

_"Brother?"_ A commander asked.

Tarek nodded. _"Yes, O'Connell is her half-brother."_ He stated.

The Chieftain nodded after a few minutes. _"Very well, we'll keep an eye on them, but no one is to harm the girl, nor force her into anything, we'll let her make her own decisions."_ He said at last, after conferring with Saleem about his granddaughter. _"Good work Tarek."_ He said. Tarek mounted his horse and then they left.


	3. Chapter Three

We reached the Bedouin trading post by morning. A group of women had to chase the warden out of a tent, yelling at him as I held back a laugh. My clothes were now dry, so I didn't need to get a change of clothes like Evy had too.

I did however told the women in Arabic to get Evy changed, and I was now translating for the camel trader and Jonathan. Johnathan was yelling at him until my brother intervened.

"Just pay the man."

Jonathan grabbed out his wallet, and forked over cash as Rick took the reins over the four camels.

"I can't believe the price of these fleabags." Jonathan grumbled.

"We coulda had 'em for free, all we had to do was give 'em your sister." Rick said.

"Yes, awfully temping wasn't it?"

"Awfully."

Just then, Evy came out of the tent with, Bedouin women behind her, in a black tightly fitted Bedouin dress.

"Then again." My brother murmured.

I rolled my eyes with my brother's crush on my cousin and turned to my horse. "Alright Abrar, time to go." I whispered. I put my foot in the stirrups and swung myself into the saddle and took ahold of the reins, as my brother and cousins and the warden got onto the camels.

We started riding into the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert. "Never did like camels. Jonathan complained. "Filthy buggers. They smell, they bite, they spit. Disgusting." My cousin complained.

My brother wasn't paying attention to Jonathan, so I followed his gaze to see what was up. The warden was stuffing his face with a chicken wing and his teeth were green. Flies were buzzing around his head and then he spit something out. I grimaced and turned my head the other way before I could get sick.

"Yeah, disgusting." Rick commented.

"Well, I think they're cute." Evelyn said, scratching her camel on the head, in between the ears.

We traveled well into the night, but I found myself not being able to sleep once nighttime came. Jon was sleeping, with his head bobbing with every step his camel took. That was until the warden started snoring, which awoken my cousin.

This caused Jon to hit him with the camel fly swatter several times until the warden stopped snoring, not once waking up. I just shook my head and rolled my eyes.

Rick suddenly looked up to the cliffs, and I allowed my eyes to follow. We saw 10 men on horseback standing there, all in dark robes. I knew them to be the Medjai, and sooner or later, we would cross paths with them, and when we did, I knew that it would not be good. From what I remember, the Medjai wasn't big on giving a lot of chances. They would give maybe a warning or even two, if they want to be generous. They would do anything to keep anyone from discovering what lay hidden in Hamunaptra, and here I was, one whom was once from a Medjai tribe, following this group to the hidden city.

I sighed and my brother turned to look at me curiously. I shook my head and turned to look straight ahead of me, after one last look at the cliffs.

Of course I thought about what would have happened if my father hadn't died and if my mother hadn't taken me away from the tribe, I knew that if none of that would've happened, then I would be married already. My father had an arranged marriage set up since the day I was born, well, technically since before I was born, as he had talked about it with the then chieftain, about if I was born a girl (which obviously, I was), then when I turned 19 years of age, I would be married to his son. And I'm not sure how that might would have worked out, but I did know Ardeth, we used to play together as children, and he was one of my best friends, as I didn't have many, as most children were afraid of hanging out with me, due to my father's rank.


	4. Chapter Four

The sun hadn't yet arise (although, it was now light) and the warden and Jonathan were already at it.

"And you snore!" My cousin exclaimed.

"I do not snore!" The warden fired back.

I sighed and rolled my eyes as I blocked them out. I pushed ahead forward as I heard my brother tell Evelyn that we were almost there.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

My brother looked down at the ground and I followed his gaze and saw a bunch of skeletons sticking up out of the ground. The bones were looked to be bleached and eaten away, from the way they were positioned, it looked as if they were trying to climb out of the desert itself. I shuttered. "Pretty sure." He said.

"What in bloody hell is this?" Jonathan asked.

"Other seekers of Humunpatra." The warden shivered.

I sighed upon seeing the 3 Americans, Beni, and an Egyptologist and about 24 native diggers all on horses with the exception of Beni, who was on a camel.

"Good Morning, my friends." Beni said.

My brother nodded and the others came to a stop while Rick and Beni just look over at the horizon. The Americans looked confused, and I had to admit, I was too, sure, being born in the Medjai, I knew all about Hamunpatra, but, I had no clue to as what they were doing.

"Well, what the hell we doin'?" One of them, which I believe to be Daniels asked.

"Patience, my good sahib, patience." Beni responded.

"First one to the city, O'Connell! Five hundred! Cash bucks!" One of them told my brother, but Rick didn't respond to him, just kept staring at the Horizon.

Suddenly, the sun starts to rise. "Get ready." Rick said.

"For what?" Evelyn asked.

"We're about to be shown the way."

Wait, shown the way? I pondered. Of course, it all made sense now, I didn't understand it when I was a child, but now that my brother said that, it was pretty logical. The path to Hamunpatra wouldn't be shown to just anyone at any time, especially to those who didn't know the way over there, so there was a certain time that it would show itself, which is why many people never made their way to the lost city, they were never shown the way, and it was a good thing that they didn't. Well, it wasn't good for them, as they would be dead. But I'm pretty sure if that if they did indeed find the city and what was buried beneath it, they would have died anyway, and probably most everyone in the country, and eventually the world.

A huge volcano shape started to rise along with the sun. And pretty soon, the Americans started to take off, I rolled my eyes. This trip was a suicide mission.

"See ya there, O'Connell!" One of them yelled as they were taking off.

"Ah, begging your pardon, but shouldn't we be going?" Jonathan asked.

"After all, you rode us night and day to win that bet." Evelyn added.

Since neither Rick nor Beni made a move, I had a feeling that the Americans were going in the wrong direction.

Beni watched them and spit into the sand. "Fools!" He muttered, which confirmed my suspicions, as did the shifting volcano. And the Americans chased after it, and then it shifted again. It shifted 3 more times, and it made the Americans so angry and confused. I had to admit, that was pretty hilarious.

Then everyone starting taking off. I stayed where I was for a few minutes. I was in no rush to get there.

"You boys owe me five hundred dollars." Rick said, as I finally made my way into the lost city. "Okay there?" My brother asked me.

"Yeah." I nodded. "You know I wasn't too eager to get here."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know, I didn't forget."

Rick, the warden and my cousins were working next to a narrow crevice and I was just merely watching them, as I had already informed them that I wanted nothing to do with this place and that I had only come because my brother asked me too, and nothing more, and nothing less.

"That thing gives me the creeps." Jonathan said, of seeing the face of Anubis.

"Be nice. That thing saved my life." Rick said.

I turned to see Evelyn positioning ancient mirrors along the crevice. I knew what she was doing, I had heard of them before.

"That "thing" gets me excited." Evelyn said.

"The things that get you excited." Rick said mockingly sarcastic to her.

"According to Bembridge Scholars, inside the statue of Anubis was a secret compartment, perhaps containing The Book of the Living." Evelyn said excitedly. Yeah, no, not a good idea that she was looking for that book, I shook my head with a sigh.

I followed them all down into the crevice. Ricked got a torch as a source of light, until Evelyn's ancient Egyptian trick would take in place.

"Do you realize, we are standing inside a room that no one has entered in over four thousand years?" Evelyn asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, like most places around here." I said, looking around, and I knew instantly that this is a type of place where an Embalmer's chambers would be.

"Who cares? I don't see no treasure." The warden said.

"You're welcome to my share of the spider webs." Rick told him.

"And it stinks to high heaven in here." Jonathan said. I raised an eyebrow, yeah, it did stink, but it wasn't the chamber. I let my eyes shift to the warden and shook my head.

"Cretins." Evelyn rolled her eyes.

"That's a neat trick." Rick said, as the light from the sun came on. I had to admit, even though I was completely against this whole trip, I was intrigued.

"Oh my God, it's a preparation room." Evelyn murmured.

"Preparation for what?" Rick asked.

"For entering the afterlife." Evelyn said, but that wasn't clear to my brother, who drew his gun.

Jonathan nudged him. "Mummies, my good son, this is where they made the mummies."

I rolled my eyes. "It's similar to how they embalm people today, except for people don't prefer being mummified in present day time." I added, as I followed after Evelyn.

We walked through a Labyrinth, which was cobweb infested might I add, and into Anubis's Chamber. Where we ran into the Americans, which all scared each other, that they all had their guns drawn.

"Ya scared the bejeezus out of us, O'Connell." One of them said.

"Likewise." My brother responded.

"This here is our statue,... friend." Another said.

"Don't see your name on it,... pal." Rick told him.

Beni and the others came out of the shadows, each with guns pointing at him. I rolled my eyes, they were kind of acting like a bunch of children. But with guns.

"Ten to one, O'Connell, your odds are not-so-good." Beni said.

"I've had worse." Rick said.

"Yes, me too." My idiotic cousin clutched a tiny derringer.

"Let's be nice, children, if we're going to play together, we must learn to share." Evelyn informed them all, dragging Rick to another area. Jon, the warden and I followed them into another chamber. Upon the writing on the wall, I saw the name Imhotep. My eyes narrowed, it couldn't be.

"According to my calculations, we should be right under the statue. We'll come up right between his legs." Evelyn said. I raised an eyebrow. She blushed and laughed. "Oh My."

"And when those dirty Yanks go to sleep –"Jonathan started, and then looked at Rick. "No offense."

"None taken."

"We'll sneak up and steal that book right out from under them." Jonathan continued.

"And you're sure you can find the secret compartment?" Rick asked.

"Yes, if their Egyptologist hasn't already found it." Evelyn told him.

Jonathan looked around. I say, what's our smelly little friend got himself up to?"

I shrugged, not seeing the warden anywhere, but I wasn't about to go looking for him.

I couldn't help but laugh as Evelyn started explaining how mummification worked and the look on my brother's face.

"Lemme get this straight, they stuck a sharp, red hot poker up your nose, cut your brain into small pieces and then ripped it all out through your nostrils?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Ouch, that's got to hurt." Rick muttered.

"It's called mummification. You're dead when they do this."

"If I don't make it out of here, don't put me down for mummification." Rick muttered to Jonathan.

Suddenly a huge chunk of rock where they were using the hammers fell down. I jumped back. When the dust cleared, we walked over to it, and I knew it to be a sarcophagus.

"Oh my god,... it looks like, it looks like a sarcophagus." Evelyn said.

"Why would they bury somebody in the ceiling?"

"They didn't, they buried him at the foot of Anubis." I informed him.

"He was either someone of great importance. Or he did something very naughty." Evelyn added.

"Or both." I muttered, where no one could hear me, I was having a bad feeling about this whole thing. I knew who he had to be, and what he did, but I wasn't sure, but if I was right, this wouldn't end every well.

Evelyn cleared off the dirt and started to read the hieroglyph, and I read it over her shoulder. "He that shall not be named." I whispered under my breath." Well hell, it was who I thought it was, this was officially not going to end well.

"Well, … Who is it?" Jonathan asked.

"He that shall not be named." Evelyn repeated as Rick dusted off a lock.

"There's some sort of lock here. You say these things are made of granite with a steel interior?" Rick said.

"Quarried granite with a cobalt lining." I said, as Evie looked at the lock.

"Whoever's in here, sure wasn't getting out." Jonathan commented. And it was meant to stay that way.

"No kiddin', without a key, it'll take us a month to crack this thing." Rick murmured.

"A key! That's it! That's what he was talking about." Evie said.

"Who?" I asked at the same time as my brother asked, "Who was talking about what?"

"The man on the barge. The one with the hook, he was looking for a key." She said, as she dug through Jonathan's bag. The Medjai warrior, well, that was another confirmation that this was a bad idea. She finally pulled out the key box and Jonathan tried to grab it back.

"Hey, that's mine!" He exclaimed, and Evie slapped his hands away and undid the box, revealing a key. That's when the warden suddenly comes running at us, screaming and clutching his head, then he runs and slammed headfirst into a rock and then falls down, dead, eyes wide open.

 


	5. Chapter Five

We were all getting ready for bed when all of a sudden, we heard horses rushing into the area, I looked up to instantly seeing the Medjai coming in, all fires with their guns, and I sighed, I knew this wasn't going to go well. At all.

Rick told Evy to stay by the fire and handed her a gun.

"No, wait, wait! Wait for me. Wait." Evy went after him.

"Evy!" Jon exclaimed. "Excuse me, but didn't the man just say stay here?" He called after her.

"Evy!" He ran after her. I just sighed and stayed where I was, I was not about to get involved with this thing going on here.

The Medjai started shooting and throwing lilted torches on tents. I watched as an epic fight scene went on between the warriors of my people and my the others go on, and I couldn't help but sigh, even though I haven't been within my tribe in over a decade, I still couldn't bare see the warriors getting shot off their horses.

I eventually gave into my curiosity after my brother tackled one Medjai, whom appeared to be the leader of the group, and I walked over to them just enough to hear what they were saying during their scuffle.

I instantly knew who the leader was when his scarf fell off after being knocked from his horse, Ardeth Bay, the leader of the 12 Medjai tribes.

He just stared as my brother threatened him with a lit up firecracker. "Enough!" Ardeth said. "Stand down, stop fighting." He told his men in Arabic. He turned back to look at my brother, Evy and Jon, he noticed me for a moment, but he didn't make any other acknowledgement.

"We will shed no more blood, but you must leave. Leave this place, or die." He headed back to his horse. "You have one day." He mounted. "Let's go, back to home." He ordered as they all rode away.

I knew that it was a long shot, but I headed to the outside of this place anyway, seeing if I could catch him, and I did, Ardeth told his men to go ahead on that he would catch up with them in a moment.

"So it's true, you are Aaliyah Massari then?" He asked.

I nodded. "In the flesh." I said. "Long time no see Ardeth."

He just nods and looks at me for the longest time. "What are you doing here Aaliyah, you know what happened here, and what will happen if the creature arises again."

I nodded. "I know that, I'm only here because my brother asked me to come, and he knows that I want nothing to do with any of this." I told him. "My hands are clean Ardeth, I'm only here to keep my brother out of trouble, as if that's possible." I said with a sigh, shaking my head. "They don't know where I come from." I added. "I haven't told them anything, I fear it would raise too many questions."

Ardeth nodded. "It probably would. Do they know anything?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, well, his sarcophagus kind of uh, fell down into the chamber, but it hasn't been opened."

"Okay, just, if you can, try to make sure they don't find too much out." He requested.

I nodded. "I'll try to do what I can without giving out too much information."

Ardeth nodded, "Well, it was good seeing you again, despite the situation." He said, and then he took off in the direction where his men went.

I went back to the campfire where Rick was trying to teach Evy how to fight. "And then mean it. Hit it right here."

She tried doing what she was told, but truth be told, she was so drunk that she fell right into him. I just shook my head and went to my sleeping bag, where I fell asleep.


	6. Chapter Six

The next morning, we started afresh in Imhotep's chamber and Evy tried out the key to unlock the sarcophagus. All three of them had hangovers, which I found amusing, and when I pointed this out, my brother shot me a glare.

Rick and Jonathan started to slide the top off of the sarcophagus. "I can't believe I allowed the two of you to get me drunk."

"Don't blame me, I don't even remember being there." Jonathan told her.

"Well neither do I, thank you." Evelyn said.

My brother looked hurt. "You don't?"

No... Why?... Should I?" Evy asked.

"Gee, yeah, you told me it was the best time you ever had." Rick smiled. It was just then that the lid fell off and made a loud noise that made them clutch their heads with a groan. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh my god, I've dreamed about this ever since I was a little girl." Evy exclaimed.

"You dream about dead guys?" Rick asked, with an eyebrow raised. I shook my head, it had to be about finding things, like books and spells and symbols, not mummies, and especially not this particular mummy, because no one was supposed to know of him, let along find him.

"Look, all the sacred spells have been chiseled off. The hieratics and hieroglyphs that protect the deceased on his journey into the afterlife, they've been removed. This man was cursed,... doomed." Evy said.

I admit I was curious, so I went over to look at it, and sure enough, they all were, and yeah, doomed was an understatement.

Jonathan and Rick were uninterested in what she had to say. "Tough break." Rick said.

"Yes, I'm all tears, now let's see whose inside, shall we?" Jonathan said, and unlocked the lid.

"Oh my god." I muttered, using my scarf to cover my nose, even though it's been thousands of years, it still smelled horrible. Rick and Jon grabbed the lid and started pulling. All of a sudden, the mummy, better known as Imhotep, popped out, making us all jump back. Now I knew what the stories meant about the curse. He looked this way because of the Hom-dai.

"Is he supposed to look like that?" Rick asked.

I shook my head. "No, mummies aren't supposed to look like this. So, fresh so to speak."

Evy nodded, agreeing with me. "He's… He's." She started, not able to find the right word.

"Juicy." Jonathan offered up.

"Yes. He's more than four thousand years old and still decomposing." Evy said.

"And look at this." Rick said. He was pointing to the inside of the coffin lid and you could see fingernail starches and blood, long dried inside of the lid.

"Oh my god." Evy said. "He was buried alive." She leaned in closer, seeing something. "And he left a message."

I looked in closer to see hieratics written in blood. "Death is only the beginning." I repeated.

Jonathan shivered while Rick looked around. "Okay, where's my gun?" He asked. And I raised an eyebrow, the creature wasn't living, and even if he was awoken, not even a gun could stop him.

"What are you going to do? Shoot him?" Jon asked.

"If he decides to wake up, hell yes." Rick said, causing me to roll my eyes at him.

"Yeah, that isn't going to work." I said. "Not even all the guns in world would stop him."

I saw 3 pairs of eyes on me, and I shrugged. I wasn't going to say anything, and I wasn't going to unless it was really needed.


	7. Chapter Seven

Our two camps have joined together now. Rick and Beni were cooking hairy meat over the fire while Jon was making a face over the smell.

"What is this stuff? It smells like our late friend, the Warden." He said, while Rick and Beni exchanged glances and grinned. Jon looked even more horrified.

"You did not!?... We're not!?"

I couldn't help but laugh at him, for being so gullible. My brother's a lot of things, but he isn't no cannibal.

"Rat gizzards. They smell bad and taste worse, but that's the best the desert has to offer." Rick explained to him.

The Americans sat down. Say O'Connell, whadaya think these honeys will fetch back home?" One of them asked, I believed this one was called Henderson.

"We hear you gentlemen found yerselves a nice gooey mummy. Congratulations." Another, which I thought went by the name of Burns said.

"Ya know if ya dry him out, you can sell him for firewood." Daniels said. They start laughing as Evy came and dropped a big pile of skeletons of scarabs down on the ground. I looked up from my book.

"Uh, Evy, why do you have a bunch of old dead scarabs?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

"Scarabs, flesh eaters, I found them inside our friend's coffin. They can stay alive for years living off the flesh of a corpse, or in this case..." She shrugged and looked at the meat that they were roasting. "Famished."

Meanwhile, Jon and Rick looked at the scarabs in horror. "Are you saying somebody threw these things in with our guy, and they slowly ate him alive?" Rick asked.

Evy nodded. "Very slowly." Even I had to admit, if he didn't do something so bad, I would feel bad for the guy.

"He certainly was not a popular fellow when they planted him." Jon said.

"Must of got a little too frisky with the Pharaoh's daughter." Rick added.

I rolled my eyes. "Well not quite. Though getting involved with the pharaoh's concubine, and murdering the pharaoh and then try to bring your death lover ought to do the trick." I muttered under my breath, where no one could hear me.

"According to my readings, our friend suffered the Hom-Dai, the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses, one reserved for only the most evil blasphemers. In all of my research, I've never read of this curse actually having been performed." Evy said.

I nodded. "That's because it actually hasn't other than this one time. After that, they never found a reason to use it on anyone else. And with very good reason" I told them.

"That bad huh?" Rick asked us.

"Yes, they never used it because they feared it so. It's written, that if a victim of the Hom-Dai should ever arise, he would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt." Evy informed them.

"The ten plagues?" Rick asked. "You mean all ten plagues?"

"Like what that Moses guy did to that Pharaoh guy?" Beni asked.

I nodded. "That's one way of putting it." Evy said.

"Let's see, there was frogs, flies, locusts..." Jon started.

"Hail and fire." Burns said.

"The sun turning black." Henderson added.

"Water turning to blood." Daniels inputted.

"And my personal favorite: people covered in boils and sores." Said Jon.

"There is also lice, diseased livestock and death of the firstborn, but I suppose that's irrelevant in this case." I added.

Then men started to exchange worried glances, and Evy just laughed. I didn't join in with her laughter, this was no laughing matter, as it was a very serious matter. The men were right to be scared.

"Fried gizzard anyone?" She asked.

After everyone had eaten, we started to get ready for bed. I was so tired that I went to sleep, the best that I could. It wasn't long before I was awaken though, by Evy's voice, but what she was saying, it wasn't good.

"Ahm kum Ra. Ahm kum Dei." She said.

"Evy! No!" I half yelled as the Egyptologist awoken.

"No! Noooooo! You must not read from the book!" He yelled

Out of nowhere, a piercing whine is heard, coming from out in the desert. We all jumped to our feet as the Americans run out of their tents. I quickly grabbed my bag and put it on my back.

The sound is starting to get louder and closer. And then from out of the darkness a huge wall of locusts swrils into camp and envelops everyone. Rick grabs Evy, and they, Jon and I run for the crevice. "Evy, you have no idea what you've done." I muttered as we ran into the crevice.

Once in Evy was pushed against the wall while I jumped onto the rock with Rick and Jon trying to escape the scarabs. She pushed against one area of the wall, which was a hidden door trap, and she went through, screaming. "Evy! Evelyn?" We called for her, until I pointed out the thing of a hidden door in the wall. They started pushing on the wall until the Americans and some of the others started running towards us.

"Run, you sons of bitches! Run!" Henderson said, as they came a running.

"Go." Rick said, and Jon and I took off behind them, with Rick following us. We watched as one of the diggers was completely ate up by scarabs. "Go! Go!" Ricj yelled. Rick found Evy, as I could hear him from the other hall. "There you are! Will you quit playing hide-and seek? Come on, let's get out of here."

"Evy!" Jon yelled as two of the Americans and I followed him with torches. "Ahh!" He said, dropping his torch, as we lay sights on the mummy. The creature, Imhotep.

The creature started roaring and Rick roared back, and fired his gun. "Move!" He yelled.

"Yeah, right." Jon said, as we followed him, and straight into the main chamber where the Medjai were waiting for us, guns pointed, and I could see the Egyptologist clutching the book and rocking back and forth.

Ardeth removed his scarf. "I told you to leave or die. You refused. Now you may have killed us all." He said, and I couldn't help but to give Evy a glare, as she shrugged. Right now though, I was attempting to get my heart rate under control.

"For you have unleashed a creature we have feared for more than 3,000 years." He continued.

"Relax. I got him." Rick said.

I hit my brother's shoulder. "Rick, it will take more than a mortal weapon to get rid of him." I muttered. Ardeth nods.

"No mortal weapon can kill this creature. He's not of this world." He said, and stepped back as two of his men brought out Burns and handed him back over to Henderson and Daniels.

"You bastard." Daniels said.

What did you do to him?" Henderson asked.

"It was the creature." I whispered, in horror of the sight of what he had done to Burns.

"We saved him." Ardeth said. "Saved him before the creature could finish his work." He said. "Leave, all of you, quickly, before he finishes you all." He looked at me on that last part. He then spoke in Arabic to his men to leave.

"I must now go on the hunt, and try and find a way to kill him." He said, walking out behind his men.

"I already told you, I got him." Rick said.

"Rick! He already told you one time that no mortal weapon can kill him." I muttered.

Ardeth nodded. "Know this, this creature is the bringer of death. He will never eat, he will never sleep and he will never stop." He said. "You should listen to your sister." He gave me a nod and left.

Rick looked at me. "You know him?" He asked. I nodded. "Yes, he was from my tribe when I was a child, one of the villages." I said, "There was an arranged marriage set up." I said, looking at the spot where he'd left. Shaking my head, I headed back outside and over to my horse.


	8. Chapter Eight

By morning, we headed back to Cairo, at the British Fort and the soldiers let us through as we arrived at the gate once they checked our papers. My brother and Evy headed up Evy's quarters, I followed them, just to find out what the plan was, he probably wanted to get her out of Egypt, but he already knew that I wouldn't leave, I mean, this is where I'm from, sure I'm only half Egyptian, and half American, and even though I've been to America multiple times, and hold a dual citizenship there, I was raised here, there wasn't any way I was leaving it, not while it was in danger.

Already, the sky was getting gray and dark and it was thundering and lightning, which wasn't a good sign at all, I sighed as we walked into her room.

"I thought you said you didn't believe in that fairy tales and hokum stuff. " He said, carrying some dresses and carrying them to her suitcase. "Shoo." He told the cat, and Evy removed her.

"Having an encounter with a 3,000-year-old walking, talking corpse does tend to convert one." She started to remove her dressed from the suit case.

"Forget it. We're out the door, down the hall, and we're gone." Rick added another armful of clothes.

I sat on the free part of the bed, petting the cat, while watching their exchange, amused, eventually though, I would need to go home, check on mom.

"Oh, no, we are not." Evy said.

"Oh, yes, we are,"

"Oh, no, we are not. We woke him up, and we are going to stop him." She removed the last of the stuff he had packed. I snickered lightly, seeing my brother with an armful of books that he was about to pack in.

"We? What we? We didn't read that book. I told you not to play around with that thing." Rick said. "Didn't I tell you?"

"Yes right then, me, me, me, me." She said, picking up the books from the case. "I, I, I woke him up and I intend to stop him."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really?" I asked. "Really, ought to be interesting, do tell." I starched the cat behind the ears.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Yeah? How? You heard the man. No mortal weapons can kill this guy."

"Then we are just going to have to find some immortal ones." Evy said, picking up things and taking one from Rick's hands and putting it back.

"There goes that we again." He said.

"Look, will you just listen to me? We have to do something." She said, and slammed the suitcase shut on my brother's hand, who quickly took them out and exclaimed in pain. It took everything I had not to laugh at him.

"Once this creature has been reborn, his curse is going to spread until the whole of the earth is destroyed." She told him.

"Yeah?" Rick said. "Is that my problem?"

"It is everybody's problem."

"Evelyn, I appreciate you saving my life and all, but when I signed on, I agreed to take you out there and bring you back." He said. "I have done that. End of job, End of story. Contract terminated."

"That's all I am to you? A contract?" She asked.

Uh, I think I should better take my leave I thought, starting to stand up off the bed.

"You can either tag along with me, or you can stay here and try to save the world." He said. "What's it going to be?"

"I'm staying."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine." And with that my brother left.

Evy turned to look at me with her arms crossed. "Is he always like this?"

I nodded. "Pretty much."

"How do you deal with him?"

I shrugged. "I just do, he's my brother, other than him, and I don't have that much family left on my mom's side." I headed towards the door. "Speaking of which, I should go home, check on my mom." I said.

I walked outside, back to where my horse was and mounted. I rode back to the stables and put my horse up for him to get some rest and walked up to the house, I walked in and into the kitchen to where I saw a note on the counter.

_Aaliyah,_

_I've left you a note so you wouldn't worry. I'm heading back over to Arizona to visit with my parents, and check in with my family, and I'll send them your love. My mom called, asking me to come up there while she undergoes some medical treatments and I'll be gone for a couple weeks, and so don't worry, I'm okay, I just wanted to let you know where I'm at. Tell your brother that he better behave._

_-Mom_

The note was dated for two days ago, I was kind of relieved, and at least she wouldn't be here to be involved in all of this mess. I shook my head as I headed to my bedroom to change out into some fresh clothes. I changed out of what I had on for the past few days and then I went ahead and got a quick shower, going back to my room and pulled on a pair of tan cargo pants, a belt, a gray half sleeved shirt and a black light weight jacket and a gray scarf, just in case we'd have to head out into the desert again.

I put my sword back around my hip and dumped out my bag on my bed and threw in some stuff that may be needed, we would never know what would happen. I also threw in my daggers as well. I put the bag back over my shoulder. I brushed my hair, since by now it had dried, and instead of a bun, I just pulled it all back into a ponytail.

I walked back out the door and shut it behind me, then I started heading back towards the port, I didn't bother saddling Abarr back up, he needed the rest and I didn't want to overdo it with him. I caught sight of Evy not long after I had arrived back.

"Hey Evy." I told her.

"Hey." She looked down from her book. And then, my brother showed up.

"Oh, Evelyn! Aaliyah!" He ran up to us.

"Oh, so you're still here." Evy said.

"We've got problems." He said.

I looked at him, confused. "What happened?" Then it started thundering, and raining fire. Rick grabbed Evy's arm and started running back.

"Come on Aaliyah!" He called. People started screaming as they ran for cover, and I quickly followed after them. A few people caught on fire and started screaming and falling down, although, I was pretty sure, stop, drop and roll wouldn't work, not like they were trying to do that anyway.

Ben started running down some steps and then ran back up when he saw my brother, but Rick noticed him anyway. "Hey!" He grabbed him and pushed him against the wall. "Beni, you little stinkweed. Where have you been?"

A roaring started, and I suspected that it was from Imhotep, the creature, and Beni took this chance to escape from Rick. Rick grabbed his gun out and took Evelyn's hand and went up the steps, with me in tow. We followed after him while he went first, pointing his gun around, making sure nothing was there. That's when we saw Burns, who had literally had the life sucked out of him. And we saw the creature in front of the fireplace, facing it. Rick was pointing the gun at him as we watched as Imhotep was reforming a little bit.

"We are in serious trouble." Rick said. The creature started advancing towards us and Rick started firing at him with two guns, which didn't do much of anything to stop him. I turned around to see Jon, Henderson and Daniels arriving in the room. And Daniels and Henderson started in with firing at him. All of a sudden, the creature, half pushed, half threw my brother into the three men.

I ran back towards the door. "Evy! Come one!" I called out to her, but it was too late, Imhotep had noticed my cousin and started walking over to her.

Then her little white cat hopped onto the piano and started punching keys as she walked. Imhotep screeched and disappeared into a cloud of dust. That figured, cats were the guardians of the underworld, and he had every reason to be afraid of them, until he had fully regenerated that is.

The men started sitting back up. "We are in very serious trouble." Rick said.

We then left and were in the museum of antiquities.

"He does seem to like you, Evy." Jon said.

"Yeah, what's that about?" Rick asked.

"What does this guy want?" Henderson asked, as we followed Evy through the halls.

"There's only one person who can give us any answers." Evy said, as we saw the curator and Ardeth.

"You!" Evy said, upon seeing Ardeth and Rick and the guys held up guns. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Miss Carnahan. Miss. Massari, Gentlemen." The curator said.

"What's he doing here?" Evy asked, referring to Ardeth.

The curator looked at Ardeth and back at us, I was the only one who wasn't threatening them. "Do you really want to know, or would you prefer to just shoot us?"

"After what I just saw, I'm willing to go on a little faith here." Rick put his gun up. "Besides, from what Aaliyah has told us, or the lack of not, she knows something too." He said, looking at me, I shrugged.

"It will be revealed soon brother," I rolled my eyes at the mocking face he gave me.

We all sat down wherever we could find a spot, or stood, I stood in between Ardeth and Evy. "We are part of an ancient secret society." The curator said. "For 3,000 years, we have guarded the city of the dead. We are sworn at manhood to do any and all in our part to stop the High Priest Imhotep from being reborn into this world." He said, taking a seat.

"Because of you, we have failed." Ardeth said.

"You think this justifies the killing of innocent people?" Evy asked.

"To stop this creature?" The curator asked. "Let me think." Ardeth looked at him. "Yes." They both said.

"Question. Why doesn't he like cats?" Rick held up a hand as Evy moved away. I could answer that question.

"Cats are the guardians of the underworld. He will fear them until he's fully regenerated."

Ardeth nodded. "Then he will fear nothing."

I could see nervous looks on their faces. My brother looked at me. "So this is why you wanted nothing to do with this, you knew?"

I nodded, and showed him my arms real quick. "I was born into the society, so to speak, I grew up with the truth, but I couldn't say anything."

Rick nodded slowly, looking at Ardeth, who nodded, backing up my story. "Her father was one of the commanders."

One of the Americans finally worked up the courage to speak and we looked at him. "You know how he gets his self fully regenerated?" Daniels asked.

"By killing everyone who opened that chest." Henderson said.

"And sucking them dry." Daniels yelled.

"Jonathan will you stop playing with that?" Evy scolded Jon as he was messing with an arrow.

"When I saw him alive in Hamunaptra, he called me Anck-Su-Namun." She said. My eyes widen and Ardeth and the curator exchanged glances, I looked over at them. Well, hell, this wasn't good.

"And then just now in Mr. Burns' quarters, he tried to kiss me." She added.

"It's because of his love for Anck-Su-Namun that he was cursed." The curator said. I nodded knowing that. "Really, I thought it was because he also helped murder the pharaoh?" I asked Ardeth quietly.

Ardeth nodded. "Well, that too." He whispered back.

"Apparently, even after 3,000 years…" The curator continued.

"He is still in love with her." Ardeth finished.

"Yes, that's very romantic, but what has it got to do with me?" Evy asked.

"Perhaps he will once again try to raise her from the dead." Ardeth told the curator.

"Yes." The curator said. "And it appears it has already chosen his human sacrifice."

"Ouch." I muttered, looking at Evy as they both turned to look at Evy.

"Bad luck, old mum." Jon said.

"On the contrary." The curator said. "It may just give us the time we need to kill the creature."

"We will need all the help we can get." Ardeth said, looking up at the skylight, my eyes followed his gaze and I groaned.

"His powers are growing." Ardeth said. The others looked up and it appeared to be a solar eclipse, a round darkness covering the sun.

"And he stretched forth this hand towards the heavens, and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt." Jonathan recited.

"Wonderful." I muttered, shaking my head.

* * *


	9. Chapter Nine

I followed my cousins, brother and the Americans up to Evy's foyer, as they discussed their next plan, while I sat around, bored, I had no clue what was going to happen, but I already knew that it wouldn't be good, at all.

"We must stop him from regenerating." Evy said. "Who opened the chest?"

"There was me and Daniels here." Henderson said. "And Burns of course."

"And that Egyptologist fellow." Daniels added.

"What about my buddy Beni?" Rick asked.

"No, he scrammed out of their before we opened the thing." Daniels said.

"Yeah, he was the smart one." Henderson inputted.

"Yeah, that sounds like Beni." Rick said.

"We must find the Egyptologist and bring him back to the safety of the fort before the creature can get to him." Evy said.

"Right." Rick said. He looked at her and raised his hand in a pointer finger. I rolled my eyes, here it came.

"She stays here, you three come with me." He pointed at her first and then them. He looked at me, wondering what to do with me. I stared at him, daring him to challenge him. He sighed and rolled his eyes and started walking out. They all started protesting then.

"Who put you in charge O'Connell?" Evy half stated, half asked. He lifted her up and headed to the double doors that led to her bedroom. "What do you think you are doing?" She gasped. "Jonathan! O'Connell!"

"Sorry, but he's a bit tall." Jon said and I snorted.

"Jonathan, coward that you are! "O'Connell, you are not leaving me in here!" Rick closed the door and locked it.

"Jonathan, if you don't open this door in one minute flat. O'Connell!"

Rick grabbed Daniels and brought him to the door. "This door doesn't open." He said over Evy's yelling. "She doesn't come out, and no one goes in, right?"

"Right." Daniels said.

"Right?" Rick looks over towards us.

"Right." Henderson said.

"O'Connell! Jonathan!" Evy yelled.

Rick dropped the key in Daniel's hand and starts walking out. "Let's go Jonathan."

"Oh, I thought I could stay at the fort and reconnoiter."

"Now!"

"Yeah, right." He stood with his book and flask. "We're just going to rescue the Egyptologist." Then he left.

I rolled my eyes, and decided to head back to the museum. I looked at Henderson and Burns. "Catch ya later, I'm heading over to the museum." And I myself walked out.

 


	10. Chapter Ten

I couldn't help but to feel uncomfortable and uneasy as I made my way to the museum, so I walked faster until I had reached it and inside, with the door closed behind me. I walked back down the hall to the main part. Both the curator and Ardeth looked up as I arrived.

"What's happened?" Ardeth asked, "You shouldn't be out there when the creature is still on the loose."

I nodded and shrugged. "I know, and nothing's happened. Rick left Evy locked up in her room and left the Americans guarding her, and he and Jon went out to try to go rescue the Egyptologist before it's too late, like that would do much good anyway, so I decided to come here."

He nodded understanding, the curator stood, saying something about needing to do something in his office and left.

"How have you been the past few years, since, well, you know." He asked. I nodded, knowing what he meant.

"Good, I suppose, nothing drastic, and pretty normal. After baba died, mom just moved me here, she didn't really want to take me out of Egypt as well, once we left the tribe, though however, she has taken me to America a few times to visit her family." I told him. "And you?"

He gave me a brief summary of what he has been through the past decade, with his father's death and then his mother's death and him taking on his father's position as the leader, and he was still young, he was just about around the same age as my brother.

"You mentioned that Evelyn and Jonathan were your cousins." He said. "How did that come about? I mean, how did you learn of it?"

I shrugged. "Long story actually, and it's kind of confusing of how we found out." I went to a simple, brief, uncomplicated version of the story. About how my grandfather, Saleem's, aunt was half Medjai, her mother have given her up at birth and she was raised by her father and stepmother, and Jon and Evy were descended from her, and alas, my distance cousins.

About half an hour later, Evy, Rick, Jon and Daniels arrived at the museum, where we learned that the creature had gotten ahold of not only the Egyptologist, but also Henderson.

"Well, according to legend, the black book that they Americans found at Hamunaptra is supposed to bring people back from the dead." Evy said from behind me as I followed Ardeth and the Curator upstairs.

"Until now, it was a notion I was unwilling to believe." She continued.

"Believe me sister. That's what brought our buddy back to life." Rick said.

"Yes. I'm thinking that if the black book can bring people to life.."

"Then maybe the gold book can kill him."

"That's the myth." She said. "Now, we just have to find out where the gold book is hidden."

All of a sudden, I heard chanting of "Imhotep." I stopped as did the others. Rick, Jon, Evy and Daniels turned around to head to the window, and I followed them, with Ardeth and the curator behind me.

They continued with their chanting as they headed towards the museum and torches and they were covered in boils.

"Last, but not least, my favorite plague, boils and sores." Jon said as I shivered.

"They have become his slaves." Ardeth said. "So it has begun, the beginning of the end."

"Not quite yet it hasn't." Evy said. "Come on." She turned to walk down the hall and we followed her to a stone wall, where she started reading, trying to find out where the golden book, known as the book of Amun-Ra was located. The curator was trying to help. Jon was looking over her shoulder, and Daniels and Ardeth were looking out the window. I stood in the space in between my brother and Ardeth.

"According to Bembridge scholars, the golden book of Amun-Ra is located in the statue of Anubis." She said.

"That's where we found the black book." Jon stated.

"Exactly."

"Looks like the old boys at Bembridge were mistaken."

"They mixed the books up." She said. "Mixed up where they were buried." She added. "So if the black book is inside the statue of Anubis, then the golden book must be inside.." She started looking and all of a sudden, I heard the doors pound open, and I jumped a bit and we heard yelling, Jon, Daniels, Ardeth and Rick looked over the balcony too, where we could see the people pushing in.

"Come on, Evy, faster." Jon said.

"Patience is a virtue."

"Not right now it isn't." Rick shook his head.

Jon started going back down the hall. "I think I'll go and get the car started. Then he left.

"I got it." Evy said. "The golden book of Amun-Ra is at Hamunaptra inside the statue of Horus." She turned back around. "Take that, Bembridge scholars." She said in triumph with a smile.

Then we ran out of the building behind Daniels. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" He ran to the car. "Get this thing in gear, boy. Let's get out of here."

"Evy. Come on, Evy. Hurry up." Jon said. We reached the car by then, Ardeth helped me and made sure I was in before he got in. Once everyone was in, Jon took off.

"You're going to get yours, Beni!" Rick said, standing up as Jon floored it. "You hear me?" He asked. "You're going to get yours!"

The townspeople started chasing after us. Jon slammed on breaks as we came across another line of people. Jon just sat there until Rick stomped on his feet as the car was floored as Jon started screaming, we were kind of jerked back, and I had to grab onto Ardeth's arm to catch myself as he steadied me. "Thanks." I said. He nodded.

"Hang on!" Rick yelled, as he took the wheel and rammed through the townspeople. Jon retook the wheel as Rick, Ardeth, the curator and Daniels pushed the people off the car. Two of the townspeople grabbed onto Daniels.

"Hey! O'Connell! O'Connell!" He and they fell off as the car took a sharp turn. I heard Imhotep roaring as we drove away and I could help but to flinch a little. Ardeth put an arm lightly around me for a moment.

"Alright?"

I nodded. "Uh-huh." I nodded, I said smally. "It's a little unnerving."

Just then, we crashed into a water tub, which basically stopped the car, and we all scrambled to get out, Ardeth jumped out with ease and then helped me as we ran from the townspeople. My brother grabbed a torch and started waving it at the people, as we got behind him and backed up to some baskets and stuff as they started chanting "Imhotep," again.

Rick was in front of us and Ardeth kept me to his side as they started advancing. The crowd made way for Imhotep as he approached with Beni behind him.

"It's the creature." The curator said, unemotionally form the other side of Ardeth. "He's fully regenerated."

He approached us, speaking Ancient Egyptian.

"Come with me, my princess." Beni translated. "It is time to make you mine forever."

Evy scoffed. "For all eternity, idiot."

He spoke again to Evy, holding out his hand. "Take my hand, and I will spare your friends." Beni translated again.

Evy sighed. "Oh dear."

"Have you got any bright ideas?" She asked.

"I'm thinking." Rick said. "I'm thinking."

"You better think of something fast, because if he turns me into a mummy, you're the first one I'm coming after." She looked at my brother. She started walking over to him, and my eyes grew wide.

"She isn't." I muttered, as I watched her as she took his hand.

"No." Rick said, and grabbed out his gun and pointed it to Imhotep.

"Don't." Evy said.

"No!" Ardeth stepped forward to put my brother's hand down.

"He has to take me to Hamunaptra to perform the ritual." Evy said, from Imhotep's side.

"She's right." Ardeth said. "Live today, fight tomorrow." Rick finally relented and put his gun up.

"I'll be seeing you again." Rick said, staring straight at Imhotep and pointed the torch.

Imhotep smiled and turned away with Evy.

"Evelyn!" Rick said, going forward, but Ardeth put his hands on his shoulders, stopping him.

Imhotep spoke in Anicent Egyptian again. "No!" Evy said. "Let go of me!"

"Goodbye my friend." Beni said, as the people started coming closer. Rick broke free of Ardeth's hold and stepped forward after Beni.

"Come here, you little…" He grabbed the torch with both hands and they continued to come and Ardeth stood in a protective stance next to me. Then Rick threw the torch into the crowd and opened up the manhole cover. "Come on!" He said to Jon, the closest one to him and reached for him.

"What about my sister?" Jon asked.

"We're going to get her back!" He puts/throws him down. "Go!" Then he grabs Ardeth. "You're next!" He makes him go down. My brother then looked at me. "Your turn!" He took my hand and put me down through to Ardeth, who helped me to get steady on my feet once I was down, nearly half-catching me.

My brother came down moments later. "The curator?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Rick shook his head.

"He wouldn't come."

Ardeth nodded. "We must go." And Rick took the lead, with Jon behind him. Ardeth looked at me. "Are you alright?" I was still in shock.

"Yeah, I think so." He nodded and took my hand for extra support and we followed my brother and cousin.


	11. Chapter Eleven

We ended up traveling most of the night. For the most part, we were all quiet which left me alone in silence to gather my thoughts together.

' _Baba'_ I thought, _'If only you could see me right now, what in the world would you say?'_ I sighed inwardly. I missed my father, more than I had ever thought before, sure, I was only a child, but I missed the simplicity of being a kid in the tribe, and I missed the way my father kept me safe, never putting me in harm's way. I had even made him check outside the tents and around the corners of my sleeping areas to make sure that there were no monsters around—in fact—I demanded this of him, refusing to sleep until he did so. Baba, amused, did all of these, and after reassuring me that it was indeed safe, put me to sleep with old stories of a time long ago, before I was born, before he was born even, of our people.

I often did find myself wondering what would've happened if my father had still lived. Would my mom still have left? Would she have left me? I quickly shook those thoughts away. _'No, she only left because baba died. She truly did love him, she said she only stayed in the tribe for him.'_

I silently studied Ardeth. Now, surely I would have been married to him if my father had never been killed. And to be quite honest, I'm not sure how I felt about that. I'm sure that he was a great guy and everything, I mean, I've known him since we were both children, and he wasn't bad looking in my opinion, which was a plus. But I'm not sure I could be as brave as my mother was, and stay somewhere I didn't want to be for a man.

Sure, my fondest and earliest memories was of the tribe, so much has changed since I was a child, I wasn't willing to be cooped up somewhere like that, and I barely practiced their religion anymore, not really, with the head coverings of the teenage girls and adult women, and much like my brother, I didn't really like being told what to do, I was my mother's daughter after all, but I was also my father's daughter, which meant, I did have pride over where I come from and of my heritage, or the values and the traditions that was instilled in me since before I could even talk.

Even though those things ran through my blood, I still valued my independence, so I don't think that I could ever settle down like my mother had once decided to, even if I did have feelings for Ardeth. It wouldn't happen.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by my brother's voice. "Alright, we need to find a car, and we need to visit a friend of mine." Jonathan was nowhere in sight.

I eyed my brother, warily. Usually, he only mentioned said friends when he needed something out of them. "Really? What are you dragging us into this time?"

I knew my brother, the only time that he ever drug me with him to see his friends if he was dragging me on yet another adventure. I thought it was supposed to be the _younger_ sibling who was supposed to annoy the hell out of the older, not the other way around?

He shrugged. "Oh, nothing much." I rolled my eyes and decided not to press that any further. Truthfully, I really didn't want to know.

"Is he always like this?" Ardeth asked me, in a whisper.

I nodded slowly. "Welcome to my world."

It wasn't long before my cousin came back, driving a car. "Okay fellas, hop in." I didn't even ask where in the world my cousin got the car, I figured it best that I didn't know anything about it. We all piled in, Rick getting in the passenger's seat and started directing Jonathan on where to go. We eventually started slowing down.

"Down that road." Rick instructed, and Jonathan nodded, turning, we drove down a long—well, sandy—road with a building, some tents and an airplane hangar just sitting about, and a 6 passenger airplane sitting off to the side. I just sighed, knowing what my brother was thinking. Figures.

We got out of the car and followed my brother up a path, where an older man was sitting wearing some kind of uniform, listening to music, sipping what appeared to be tea, and an Arab guy was standing next to him, holding a large umbrella.

"Morning Winston. A word?" Rick asked, walking up as we followed him. He explained our little problem with Evy and Imhotep and everything, but as usual, Rick didn't prefer to go into much detail.

"So what's your little problem got to do with His Majesty's Royal Air Corp?" The older man asked.

"Not a damn thing."

Winston started looking really interested. "Is it dangerous?" I raised an eyebrow at that, I let my eyes flicker to my brother, questioningly, but I didn't expect an answer.

"You probably won't live through it."

"By Jove, do you really think so?"

"Everyone else we've bumped into has died. Why not you?" That little pleasant statement had come from Jonathan, so I nudged him in the side, and he shot me a look that I ignored.

"What's the.." Winston stood up then. "What's the challenge then?"

"To save the damsel in distress, kill the bad guy, and save the world." My brother said. Well, that was one way of putting it.

The other man laughed. "Winston Havlock at your service, sir."

We followed Winston to the plane, and I had a bad feeling about this. The plane wasn't your average plan. Not like where you walk in and sit down, no, you had to slide in. It was the pilots seat in the very front, and then two seats behind that, and finally, two seats behind those, and it was a very tight squeeze, but I hardly weighed anything, and it wasn't hard to get both myself and my bag in the seat.

Jonathan was in beside me, and my brother and Ardeth was in front of us. "We'll get her back Jon; you know we will." I looked over at my cousin, who still looked very worried, as Winston started up the plane and took us into the air.

"I sure hope so." He murmured. At first, we were doing good until I happened to look back, catching sight of a big glob of sand—no, it was coming towards _us_ —"Oh my god." I muttered.

"What?" Jon asked, looking panicked as he looked over at me. "What, what is it?"

"Look behind us." My cousin's eyes grew wide as he was looking at what I was looking, he started hitting my brother's shoulder.

"What is it Jona-" His words got cut off as Jon pointed at to what we were seeing. "Winston!" He yelled over the soaring, loud wind. "Pedal faster!"

"Hang on!" Winston laughed. I came to the conclusion that this man was absolutely insane. He put the plane into a dive, where a cliff was under us. Then he put us in straight again, but the sand kept right on coming, not skipping a beat. We could see Imhotep's face form a shape in the sand.

"Duck!" Rick yelled at us, and neither me nor Jon asked questions, we ducked. And my brother fired a machine gun, presumably at Imhotep's face.

Suddenly, I heard a roar and felt sand all around me, so I didn't dare lift my head up, I grabbed my scarf around my neck and covered my face with it.

"Here I come Laddies!" Winston laughed. I heard the engine stop, and then felt us crash. I was able to get out fairly quickly, and grabbed my bag, throwing it over my shoulder, noticing the others were struggling to get up.

"Excuse me?" Jonathan started. "A little help would be useful, if it's not too much trouble!"

"Yeah, yeah, alright." Rick said, and helped Jonathan out, whom apparently had been stuck, meanwhile, I went to check on the old man. I found that he was dead, and the dead man had a smile on his face.

"Uh, Rick?"

"Yes, Aaliyah?"

"I'm afraid your friend didn't make it."

Rick came over and looked over at his friend sadly, but I quickly realized something when I saw the sand moving before I even felt it, I quickly backed away, and my brother gave me a strange look.

"Quicksand!" I yelled to them. "Get off!" All four of us ran back, and watched the plane sink into the sand, lost forever. Rick gave a quick salute as his friend's body sunk below the dune.

"C'mon." He murmured to us, walking off, and I was the first to follow my brother, with the other two men behind me.

We ended up having to walk the rest of the way to Hamunaptra. I could tell my brother didn't want to talk at all, so I didn't press him into any conversations or anything. But eventually, Ardeth and I fell in side by side.

"So, when your mother took you away, you weren't very far were you?"

I shook my head. "No, we pretty much stayed in Cairo, where she homeschooled me." I said. "I often saw my brother when he wasn't in trouble, and occasionally, mom and I went to America to visit her family." I told him.

"What made your mother decide to move out here, and ended up marrying Kahlil?" He asked, looking over at him.

I shrugged a bit. "According to my mom, after her first husband—Rick's father—died, when Rick was 4, she moved him from America to Egypt to get a fresh start." She said. "So, she moved to Cairo, and she soon met my father, and she fell for him, so she married him and joined the tribe."

I shook my head. "She tried to take Rick with her, but he refused and ended up running away. I mean, Rick's really not that much older than me. He's like 30, and I'm 24." I shrugged, leaving it at that.

 


	12. Chapter Tweleve

It wasn't long before we finally reached Hamunaptra. We went back underground, much to my displeasure, walking with torches in our hands before we came upon an entrance that was blocked by a lot of rocks. Rick and Ardeth quickly started working to move them.

And of course, Jonathan, my dearest cousin, just _had_ to open his big mouth. "I'd take those bigger stones first." He said, pointing. "Take them from the top, otherwise, the whole thing will cave in on us. Come on. Put your backs into it."

I hit my cousin in the arm while Rick whipped his head to face him, as did Ardeth, both of them giving him a look. Jonathan gave me a glare for hitting him before he spoke again. "Yes, well, you've got the idea. Chop, chop."

They went back at it while Jonathan turned away, going to inspect some kind of wall while I stood there, holding the only sources of light that we had. I would be glad to get this day out of the way, this place gave me the creeps, for good reason. I don't even think that my father had even been down in this place, and he had tried his hardest with the others to prevent them from discovering it. That mummy should have never been raised. I couldn't blame Evy, of course she didn't know, how could she? But still, this was really bad.

I looked over at what Jonathan was doing, he plucked something out of the wall and laid it in his palm as he came back over to us. I quickly realized what he was holding, a scarab. "Jonathan, don't!" But I was too late in warning him, he started screaming, so I knew that it had entered his skin.

This got Rick and Ardeth's attention. "What?" Rick asked.

"It's my arm! My arm!"

"It's a scarab." I told him. Rick looked at me before ripping Jonathan's shirt, and we saw it under his skin on his shoulder. Rick took a knife and dug it out as Ardeth held him in place. I winced slightly as it went flying, and my brother, as always, shot the thing.

I patched up my cousin's shoulder (again, I make sure I stay well stocked, I have Rick as a brother) and made sure the bandage was secured. "Don't touch anything else." I told him.

"I won't." He said, but his reaction made me raise an eyebrow at him.

"Jonathan, I mean it." I gave him a look.

He sighed. "Fine."

Finally, Ardeth and Rick had finished removing all of the stones and we followed Rick down the dark path, after a little while, Rick stopped and dropped some stuff down, as I could hear a thud, he wriggled through the crack and jumped down and then turned to help me.

Ardeth was the next one down, followed by Jonathan, the room was dark, and I could barely see two feet in front of my face, so I stuck near Ardeth. Moments later, I heard a gunshot, and then there was light filling in the room, showing us a bunch of gold.

Jonathan was in disbelief at this. "Wha…Wha…"

"Jonathan." I warned, as my brother and Ardeth started down the steps. "Remember what I told you." I said, following them down.

"Can you see…" Jonathan said.

"Yeah." Rick said.

"Can you believe…"

"Yeah."

"Can we just…"

"No." Rick and I said simultaneously.

We quickly heard a noise and all four of us turned quickly around, to see a hand, and then a body, of a mummified person, which I assumed was one of Imhotep's priests. And then two more popped out of the ground. My eyes widened and Ardeth pushed me slightly behind him, as I could figure that there would be a gun fight, one sided of course.

"Who the hell are these guys" Rick questioned.

"Priests." Ardeth said. "Imhotep's priests."

"Alright then." Then he started shooting; both of them did. I had to raise an eyebrow slightly as Jonathan pulled Rick's two handguns out of the holster. They started backing up when more arrived and I took my clue to turn around and keep moving.

They continued to fire as we walked down yet another dark tunnel, I was leading, holding one of the torches while Jonathan had the other.

"I think this is him!" I called seeming something. Upon closer inspection of the statue, I knew it was it. "It's the statue of Horus!" I called back, running over to it, Jonathan on my heels.

"Hello, Horus, old boy."

"Time to close the door." I heard my brother say and I looked back in time to see him throw a stick of dynamite at the mummified priests, and we all took cover behind the statue.

While Jonathan and Rick started pulling at the feet of Horus, Ardeth was reloading and we heard more of them coming. I sighed lightly to myself. How many freaking priests did Imhotep have?

"Damn. These guys just don't quit do they?" I could tell my brother was thinking the same thing.

"Keep digging." Ardeth said.

They finally undug the book and we brushed it off and lifted the cover, the gold book being under it.

"The book of Amun-Ra." Jonathan said.

Ardeth kept shooting as more priests came. I unsheathe my sword; he wasn't going to have enough ammo to hold all of them off at the rate they were going. And I was right, he ran out.

He turned back to where we were standing. "Save the girl. Kill the creature." He said.

I looked at my brother. "I'm going to help Ardeth, there's just too many of them." I said. Rick looked like he wanted to argue with me, but I gave him a look and he sighed, giving in, he knew that I could take care of myself. "I'll meet you outside." I told him, before turning back to Ardeth who nodded at me.

He then made a yelling noise and butted them; hitting them in the head with the gun. I shook my head and followed him, taking some mummy's heads off on my way out. I was in front of Ardeth, him getting mixed around with some of the mummies, I helped him out by slashing at some of them around him when I heard my brother's voice.

"What are you waiting for? Get out! Get out!" We both quickly did so, hearing the boom of yet another dynamite.

"What's with your brother and blowing stuff up?" Ardeth asked me, breathing hard as he tried to catch his breath, leaning against a wall.

I shrugged. "I… I don't know." I shook my head. "There's a lot of things about him that I just don't understand." I titled my head a bit. "I've learned not to question his methods; they always seem to work anyway." I said. " _Most_ of the time." I added.

He nodded, standing up as I offered a hand to help. "You good?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah." He gave me a smile and then the building started rumbling. We both looked up, to see sand and rock fixtures falling.

"We have to go." Ardeth said and I nodded.

"Yeah." He took my hand and we quickly got out of the place, dodging rocks as we went out. Soon, we finally saw the light of the sun. "Finally." I took a deep breath of fresh air.

I followed him over to where the camels were, putting quite some distance between us and Hamunaptra. None of us fully relaxed though, I was anxious to find out where my cousins and brother was, I thought that they'd be out by now.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be out soon." Ardeth said, as if he could sense what I was thinking.

"I know." I nodded. "They're stubborn, the lot of them."

"So, what will you do now?" He asked me.

I sighed with a shrug. "Honestly, I don't know what I want to do right now." I looked over at the place, which was starting to crumble. "Probably help to keep my brother out of trouble. Allah knows, he can't seem to stay out of it."

Ardeth nodded again. "Don't forget, you can come visit your tribe anytime you would like." He told me. "I'm sure your grandfather would love to see you again." I nodded. I did miss my grandfather, I didn't have as many memories of him as I did my father, but I still had some fond ones of my grandfather. When I was born, I had been the only granddaughter of his, as he and my grandmother had had 4 grandsons.

"And don't forget, I'll be around if you need me." He leaned down and kissed me softly, and gently. I was surprised, but hey, I wasn't complaining.

I kissed him back and gave him a smile when we pulled apart a few minutes later. "I'll have to keep that in mind." I told him. "And I'll keep in touch."

He nodded and kissed my forehead before mounting a camel. "I'll hold you to that."

I turned and happened to see Jonathan, Evy and my brother. "There they are." I walked alongside the camel and we approached them from behind. Ardeth reached out and touched Jonathan's shoulder, who in turn, screamed, which caused Evy to scream. He jumped back and the three turned around to face us.

I snickered at the actions of Jonathan, but I managed to rein it in before I lost control. Jonathan held his left hand on his chest, over his heart. "Thank you. Thank you very much."

Ardeth smiled. "You have earned the respect and gratitude of me and my people."

"Yeah, well, it was nothing." Jonathan said, which caused me to roll my eyes.

"May Allah smile upon you always." He put his hand to his mouth and brought it up to his forehead and back out.

Jonathan pointed his finger around. "And yourself."

Ardeth gave me a nod and then had his camel turn to face in the other direction.

"He's just leaving us here." Jonathan sighed. "Well, I guess we go home empty-handed again."

"I wouldn't say that." I didn't miss the look that Rick gave my cousin. Jonathan didn't either.

"Oh, please!" He turned to one of the other three camels standing there. "How about you, darling? Would you like a little kissy-wissy?" He asked the camel. The camel opened its mouth and breathed in Jonathan's face.

I laughed at that as I mounted on of the other camels myself. Jonathan mounted his and Rick and Evy got on the other one and we headed back to Cairo, back home, until the next adventure.


End file.
